Karl Otto (stenographer)

Karl Otto (born November 9, 1910 in Ziebigk , Dessau district , † April 24, 1998 in Bielefeld ) was a German stenographer and inventor of the shorthand system "Simple Stenography".

Life

Karl Otto was born as the son of a city employee and later city ​​inspector . He spent his childhood and youth in Ballenstedt in the northern Harz region . He started school in 1917 and switched to secondary school in 1920 , from which he graduated in 1926 with the secondary school leaving certificate. In 1926 he went to the secondary school in Quedlinburg . After graduating from high school in 1930, Karl Otto studied at the Pedagogical Academy in Köthen in Anhalt . After having passed the first teaching examination in 1932, he received a permanent position at the elementary school in Gernrode in the northern Harz region. After completing his second teaching degree, Karl Otto volunteered for the countryside and received a permanent position at the elementary school in Poley an der Saale .

In 1938 Karl Otto completed an eight-week basic training course at the FlaK in Dessau and its suburb of Kochstedt . During the Sudeten crisis he was in the fall of 1938 at short notice airbase - Company drafted in Bernburg. At the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939 he was called up there again. This unit was moved to Dęblin -Irena in Poland in November 1939 . There were transfers to the Magdeburg- East pilot training regiment and to Reims in France before the Russian campaign . At both stations, Karl Otto was employed as an auxiliary psychologist examining the next generation of pilots. After these departments were closed, he was employed as the first scribe because he was a very good stenographer. After brief stays by sergeant Karl Otto in Denmark and Hamburg , he was retrained in the rocket weapon in Munster in the Lüneburg Heath and deployed as a battery squad leader in Lorraine . Soon, however, Otto was assigned to the office again and ended the war as a department clerk.

After a year in American captivity, Karl Otto was released to Upper Bavaria . In 1951 he moved to Gladbeck in the Ruhr area and immediately returned to his job as a primary school teacher. In 1957 he was promoted to vice rector . For family reasons, Karl Otto left Gladbeck in 1967 and was transferred to the Detmold administrative district , where his younger son wanted to study music. Otto now lived in Bielefeld and was the main teacher in charge of a primary school in the Bielefeld district . A few years later he was appointed rector . He taught at this school until his retirement.

Work in the shorthand field

Karl Otto first came into contact with shorthand in 1922 when his father, who later and until his death in 1936 was also the director of the Ballenstedt Stenographers' Association , taught him the Stolze-Schrey system . Karl Otto soon used this script in school. A few years later, as a driving learner at the secondary school on the train, he learned the German unified shorthand (DEK). In his opinion, this new system (created in 1924) was more difficult to learn and more difficult to read than Stolze-Schrey. He was a member of the youth department of the Ballenstedt Stenographers Association and was particularly interested in the history of shorthands and system theory of shorthands. As a senior prime minister at the Oberrealschule (corresponds to the 13th grade today) he wrote with the title Is a simplification of the German standard shorthand necessary and possible? an annual work. Since the school's student councils were unable to properly assess a technical work on a shorthand topic, the teachers' conference unanimously decided to present the work to the Prussian government expert for shorthand, senior director Kurt Dewischeit, in Halle an der Saale . He rated the work with the grade “very good”.

During his teaching studies, Karl Otto alternated all lectures in shorthand and Stolze-Schrey. Even before the second teaching examination, he successfully conducted a beginner's course for adults according to the Stolze-Schrey system in the Ballenstedt Stenography Association. After the establishment of the German Stenographers' Association in 1933 and the associated compulsory dissolution of the stenographers' associations, he remained a member of the “Stolze-Schrey Correspondence Association”, which was allowed to continue to exist within the German Stenographers' Association. However, according to the Stolze-Schrey system, beginners' lessons were no longer allowed. When this ban was temporarily lifted, Karl Otto was allowed to teach 6th to 8th year students in Stolze-Schrey at his school in Poley . With the entry into force of the new system document of the uniform shorthand according to the system reform of 1936, the teaching ban for other systems was reintroduced.

During the war, Karl Otto was able to apply his shorthand knowledge and skills in practice. The shorthand training of the female workers who were employed by the Todt Organization was entrusted to him. In addition, after his service time with various companies he gave beginners lessons in the German unity shorthand. After all, he was always deployed at the various locations (see above) where there was a lot to be recorded in shorthand (e.g. writing down psychological reports and assessments, working in the office, recording dictations).

When Karl Otto came to Upper Bavaria after being imprisoned by the Americans , he bought a textbook based on the Scheithauer shorthand system from a train station kiosk . Otto was fascinated by how easy it was to learn. Thereupon he re-founded the "Stenografenbund Scheithauer", which was dissolved in 1933, and entered into correspondence with the system inventor Karl Scheithauer. In addition to the simplicity of the system, Otto also noticed the graphic defects of this shorthand, which, in his opinion, is primarily due to the two-step character for the consonance g. The resulting numerous high word images (so-called "climbing words") too often cross the writing space according to his imagination. As a teacher Otto was also bothered by the fact that the phonetic spelling in the Scheithauer system is often exaggerated in his opinion.

After moving to Gladbeck , Otto founded the “Kurzschriftverein Stolze-Schrey Gladbeck” in 1952 and again taught students in Stolze-Schrey, who then took part in the competitions of the “Westbund Stolze-Schrey”. Up to 200 syllables per minute were achieved. However, the compulsion to change learning was problematic, since only the unified shorthand was allowed to be taught in public schools. As a result, the students in the Stolze-Schrey-Verein became less and less. Thereupon the management of the proud Schreyschen association of the Rhein-Ruhr-Kreis founded the intersystemal "Allgemeine Deutsche Stenografenbund" (ADS) with seat in Oberhausen in the Rhineland , which took up associations of different stenography systems. The Gladbeck Stolze-Schrey-Verein joined immediately and now also gave lessons in the German unified shorthand. In competitions, speeds of over 200 syllables per minute were achieved. After moving from Gladbeck, Karl Otto was made an honorary member of the ADS and received the association's badge of honor for his many years of successful voluntary work. Finally he developed the shorthand system “Simple Stenography” (ES). For historical development and distribution see below

Even after he was 80, Karl Otto, according to his own admission, used the shorthand in his records and notes as well as in his extensive correspondence. He used the three systems Stolze-Schrey, unified shorthand and the simple shorthand, which he developed himself, alternately side by side, depending on the knowledge of the correspondent.

"Simple shorthand" by Karl Otto

Development and dissemination

Karl Otto's concern was the creation of a typeface that was easy to learn on the one hand, but on the other hand should avoid high word images like the Scheithauer system . He also strived for a system without reinforcing the compromises through pressure as a symbol for certain vowels (such as in Gabelsberger , Stolze-Schrey or the German shorthand). As a result of his studies, a first textbook on "Simple Stenography" (ES) with the subtitle "The modern shorthand for everyone" was published in Düsseldorf in 1959 . The entire learning material was divided into six sections. As early as 1960, courses were held in the shorthand association in Gladbeck for those who did not have to learn the standard shorthand at school or for professional reasons. Up to around 1970, apart from Gladbeck, shorthand associations based on the “simple shorthand” system were also established in Rotenburg ad Wümme , Lübeck , Lüneburg , Uelzen , Bielefeld , Haltern , Hamburg , Kiel , Osnabrück , Königslutter , Fulda and others

The teacher Gundolf Alliger from Gelnhausen founded the ES-Verlag in the mid-1960s and has now published all of the learning and advanced training literature on “Simple Stenography”. Erich Gunkel from Pinneberg made adaptations for the Spanish language and Esperanto . In the years that followed, various versions of “Simple Stenography” appeared in collaboration with Gundolf Alliger and, in some cases, other authors. B. 1964. From 1975 Alliger was the sole author of the various versions of the ES and in 1975 published his "Alligrafie". In 1978 he also created a lower level of “simple shorthand” and a new traffic font. He also published two upper levels, namely with many other abbreviations and abbreviations, a business font for speeds of 140 to 200 syllables per minute and a speech font for up to 400 syllables. During the various system revisions after 1959, there was a considerable exchange of the characters in some versions. In 1980, Karl Otto and Gundolf Alliger published a textbook on a “Simplified German Standard Shorthand”, for which a system certificate and a commentary on the system certificate were also issued.

After 1980 it became quiet about the ES, which is certainly also due to the general decline in interest in shorthand. In addition, other memos have been published with the aim of being even simpler.

Identification of the system

Only a few concurrent characters (n and z) agree with the Scheithauer system, from which Karl Otto was inspired mainly because of its extreme simplicity and literal self-spelling. This results in a better line structure; high word images protruding into the line below or above are reduced. The other signs for consonants and consonents come with the same meanings from the standard shorthand or from the Stolze-Schrey system. Further signs are known from the two in terms of shape, but have different meanings. No descenders are used at all. A second t for t as an aftermath is also missing. There are sympathetic characters for st, cht, rt, nt, ft and kt. The co-signs are usually connected directly to one another. If this is graphically problematic, a half-step steep line or a short flat line is inserted. l and r are presented after straight and left run-offs (as well as l in the German shorthand ). The upper right curved and the lower left curved consonents may be given loops for better connection.

Simple shorthand is a self-spelling system such as B. Arends , Scheithauer and Julius Brauns . The vowels are basically, even if followed by a consonant, literally with 11 rigid upper or lower strokes (äu = eu) (no hint at the consonant through connection width, superscript and subscript or amplification). Instead of the curved upstrokes in Scheithauer, Otto uses waves as in Ferdinand Schrey's “Volksverkehrskurzschrift” (VVK) from 1928. The accompanying sounds are rigidly connected with the vowels, that is, the following sign is added where the preceding sign ends. If two vowels follow one another and thus meet up and down strokes, they are connected by a half-step downstroke.

Simple shorthand in the versions from 1959 and 1964 has around 70 abbreviations, i.e. short characters for the most common words and syllables. The system is line-independent; no lines are required for shorthand. This is possible because there are no character forms for abbreviations which then have a different meaning due to different positions in the writing space. The row independence is therefore a great advantage. However, it has the disadvantage that with tall and bulky word images, which even Karl Otto could not completely avoid, the writer first has to think about where to start with the word in order not to get into the line above or below. The superscript and subscript had to be added in the corporate writing in order to achieve sufficient brevity and to gain further distinguishing features. There are no reinforcements in Karl Otto's shorthand system, as they are a hindrance to most writers when using the ballpoint pen .

literature

• H. Dieter Burkert: Is Otto's “Simple” Simple? , in: The shorthand teacher. Scientific monthly for the promotion of teaching in shorthand, typing and related fields , 9/1978, pp. 253-259.
• Ilse Drews: The ES-Otto viewed critically , in: Deutsche Stenografenzeitung , 11/1978, pp. 246-252.
• Walter Kaden: New history of shorthand. From the creation of writing to contemporary shorthand , Dresden 1999.
• Hans Karpenstein: The not "simple shorthand" , in: The stenography teacher. Scientific monthly for the promotion of teaching in shorthand, typing and related fields , 1/1967, pp. 4–10.
• Hans Karpenstein: Now you can hold up the mirror to Karl Otto. A criticism of the “universal shorthand ” , in: Der Stenografielehrer. Scientific monthly for the promotion of teaching in shorthand, typing and related fields , 7–8 / 1967, pp. 180–184.
• Arthur Mentz et al: History of the shorthand , Wolfenbüttel 1981, 3rd edition.
• Franz Moser among other things: Living shorthand story. A guide through the theory of shorthand and shorthand history , Darmstadt 1990, 9th edition.
• Karl Otto: My shorthand curriculum vitae , Bielefeld 1992.

Web links

• Fight for craquelure . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1966, pp. 174 ( online - also on Karl Otto and Simple Stenography).